Wry Humour

Question 1

Wry humour is Assisi

Answer 1

“clucking contentedly” -
MacCaig uses the metaphor to compare the tourists to mindless chickens. Just as chickens follow the farmer who feeds them, so too do the tourists happily follow the priest without through about what St Francis represents. The alliteration is used onomatopoeically to create the sound of chickens to highlight the iron of them happily learning about St Francis without seeing the abject poverty of the beggar.

“A priest explained… I understood the explanation and
the cleverness”
- creates a wry humour as he mocks the priest who the tourists deem to be all knowing.

Question 2

Wry humour in Basking Shark

Answer 2

Metaphor “room sized monster with a matchbox brain” MacCaig humorously describes the irony of the shark being enormous in size and yet only having a tiny brain. This introduces the more complex idea that despite his physical dominance, the shark is generally harmless, whereas man is destructive and selfish and therefore in reality more of a “monster”

“The thought made me grow pale
For twenty seconds.” - The enjambement creates a mocking tone at how man has a lack of ability to connect with the realisation of their own destructive nature for a short period of time.

Question 3

Wry humour in Visiting Hour

Answer 3

Synecdoche
“My nostrils… go bobbing along green and yellow corridors.”
MacCaig uses the amusing image of his nostrils moving through the hospital on their own. In reality he means he is moving through the hospital but the synecdoche highlights how distressed he is feeling. He doesn’t want to acknowledge the situation he is in and so appears to separate himself from the actions of his body.

“She smiles a little at this black figure in her white cave”
He imagines the sick one smiling at his awkwardness, therefore he makes a joke of the awful situation he finds himself in to make it better.

Question 4

Wry humour in Aunt Julia

Answer 4

Metaphor “She was buckets and water flouncing into them”
MacCaig’s humour is used here to affectionately create the picture of Aunt Julia who was so very much part of the highland landscape. The metaphors are both practical and sensible like her, but also witty in describing a child’s view of a powerful woman and to suggest what a significant impression she made upon him.